Featured Image Credit: ABC News
Topics: Politics, US News, Donald Trump, Los Angeles
Dan Seddon
A shocking video from the weekend's Trump administration protest captures the moment a man is repeatedly trampled on by police horses.
Hundreds of demonstrators were out in force on Friday (June 6) against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles, which culminated in something resembling a battlefield as the riot squad descended on them over three consecutive nights of pandemonium.
One iteration of the social media clip, which also aired on national television, showed a person wearing a backpack lying in the road surrounded by police both on foot and horseback.
In quick succession, he was kicked by a horse and then stamped on by another before a separate rider whacked him on the head with a pole-like tool.
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The man managed to haul himself off the ground and back away, yet a police officer forcefully returned him to the floor as the chaos continued to unfold around them.
Warning: Some people may find this footage distressing
Officers at the scene had Molotov cocktails and rocks thrown in their direction, and so the response tactic was to unload rubber bullets and tear gas on the incensed protestors.
Caught in the crossfire was Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi, who was working on behalf of 9News in the maelstrom.
"I am okay. My cameraman, Jimmy, and I are both safe," she later confirmed. "This is just one of the unfortunate realities of reporting on these kind of incidents.
"It has been a really volatile day on the streets of Los Angeles, and I do want to show you the scene here tonight."
The 9News cameras documented parts of downtown LA that had been cordoned off, as Tomasi shared: "The city warned that if anyone moves through here, they will be arrested on the spot."
On Saturday (June 7), president Donald Trump revealed that he'd authorized the mobilization of 2,000 National Guard troops to after reported violence against federal ICE agents.
"If Governor Gavin Newscum [sic], of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!" he wrote on Truth Social.
California governor Gavin Newsom reacted on X following the National Guard green light: "I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command. We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved.
"This is a serious breach of state sovereignty—inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed. Rescind the order. Return control to California."
A day earlier, Mayor Bass herself commented after Trump utilized the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expand deportation authority: "It shows a sense of terror in the community.
"It's bad enough that it happened at this location, but the way this goes and spreads throughout the community, people are not sure where they are safe."
LA locals have been told to avoid public areas.